Henrik Lundqvist

As the “Lets Go Islanders” chants rained down from the Madison Square Garden rafters, while the horn sounded on an entertaining game, the Rangers’ Ryan Malone showed the only fight the Rangers could muster in the 3rd period by giving a couple of cheap shots to Brian Strait. Too little too late, as the Islanders took the first matchup of the season against their rivals in an impressive 6-3 victory.

Now that the Montreal Canadiens have gotten a win under their belt, will it be enough to turn the tide in favor of the Habs? In a series that so far has not indicated that home ice means anything le hockey club de Montreal could very well get a win in Madison Square Garden on Sunday night and make a series out of this.

Both teams will be without key players. The Rangers have lost Derek Stepan who had surgery for a broken jaw and will not play in Sunday night’s game. This is a huge loss for the Rangers as Stepan is third on their team in points. They are getting back center Derek Brassard to replenish the forwards.

At this point, it is safe to say that the game one overtime loss to the Rangers was the only resemblance of competition in this series.

Since then the Pittsburgh Penguins have won by a collective 9-2 score. They have clearly been the better team, they have had the better drive, and they certainly have been the more composed team. The Rangers have had 45 giveaways in the past two games; compare that to the Penguins 16. The Rangers have zero power play goals in this series and have had maybe two chances all series.

The problem in trying to break down all of this information is that you cannot get a legitimate read on how this series is being...

After a game two victory, what seemed like an overplayed narrative of being unable to competently play at Madison Square Garden seemed to be vanquished by a 4-2, come-from-behind win. That storyline returned in full force after Sunday.

Heavily outpossessed and outchanced, the Philadelphia Flyers dropped game five 4-2 to the New York Rangers, giving Broadway the 3-2 edge over Broad Street in the series.

A lacking power play ruined any continuity the Flyers could have possibly constructed. Rangers forward Carl Hagelin took two penalties in two consecutive shifts to open the game. The result of those power plays was complete disaster.

Henrik Lundqvist wasn't the only person standing in the way of the Flyers on Tuesday.

The New York Rangers goaltender had an entire team jumping in front of pucks, helping the Swedish netminder stop the Flyers' constant barrage of shots. It resulted in a 4-1 win for the Rangers and a 2-1 series lead.

The two teams will face off in Game 4 on Friday in Philadelphia. And if the Flyers want some type of good news heading into that game, it looks like Steve Mason will be starting.

By virtue of finishing third place in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers have drawn the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. The Flyers and Rangers split their season series, with both teams winning twice on home ice.

The Flyers don't want to erase all of the hard work they put in since Feb. 1.

The Flyers dropped 3-1 to the Rangers on Wednesday, their second straight loss and dropping their record to 12-4-1 in nearly two months. The loss also dropped the Flyers three points behind the Rangers for second in the Metro, but they still have two games in hand.

Despite two wins over the weekend, the biggest headlines in Pittsburgh were the returns of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and the 12 game home winning streak.

Malkin, who missed nine games due to a leg injury sustained in Detroit, returned Sunday against the Jets in glorious fashion. Letang also returned on Sunday against the Jets, but will need further time on the ice in order to find his grove.

On Friday, Pittsburgh welcomed divisional for New York Rangers onto Consol ice. It was expected to be a rather close game considering the beat down the Rangers gave the Penguins at MSG just a few weeks back.